Joseph G. Bilby was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1943, received his BA and MA degrees in history from Seton Hall University and served as a lieutenant in the First Infantry Division in Vietnam in 1966-1967 and in the Army Reserve as assistant economics officer in the 303rd Civil Affairs Company from 1968-1970. He is retired from his position as Supervising Investigator for the New Jersey Department of Labor’s Central Office, has taught military history on the community college level and lectured widely on Civil War and New Jersey history. He is currently part time Assistant Curator of the New Jersey National Guard and Militia Museum in Sea Girt, New Jersey and a freelance writer and historical consultant. He is the author, editor or co-author of twenty-one books and over 400 articles on New Jersey history and folklore, military history and Outdoor subjects in both Internet and print venues and a columnist for The Civil War News and New Jersey Sportsmen News. He is also a book reviewer for The Civil War News.

Mr. Bilby has appeared on the History Channel's Civil War Journal, the Discovery Channel's Discovery Magazine, and RTE, the Irish National television network, as an expert on the Civil War and 19th century firearms, and wrote the historical liner notes for David Kincaid’s CD music albums The Irish Volunteer and The Irish American’s Song. He was a panelist for the NJ Historical Commission's 1996 seminar on Civil War Studies, a Trustee of the NJ Civil War Heritage Association, was a member and publications editor of New Jersey’s official Civil War Sesquicentennial Committee and content editor of the Committee’s website. He has lectured widely in New Jersey, at libraries, bookstores, Civil War Roundtables, historical societies and historical events, from Cape May to Sussex Counties.

Following the publication of the first edition of Three Rousing Cheers: A History of the 15th New Jersey Infantry from Flemington to Appomattox, in 1992, Mr. Bilby wrote Forgotten Warriors: New Jersey's African-American Civil War Soldiers, Remember Fontenoy: The 69th New York and the Irish Brigade in the Civil War, co-edited My Sons Were Faithful and They Fought: The Irish Brigade At Antietam, and co-authored Remember You Are Jerseymen: A Military History of New Jersey’s Troops in the Civil War with William C. Goble. All were published by Longstreet House, Hightstown, NJ. He received a grant from the New Jersey Historical Commission to assist in the research for Three Rousing Cheers, and Forgotten Warriors received a publication grant from the same institution. Remember Fontenoy was awarded the 1997 William Donovan Award for Excellence in Military Literature and, in a softbound edition as The Irish Brigade in the Civil War, published by Da Capo Press, was a Military Book Club selection and is also currently available as a Kindle title. Mr. Bilby's Civil War Firearms, initially published by Combined Publications and now by Da Capo, is in its third printing, was a Military Book Club selection, runner-up in the history category in the 1997 Small Press Book Awards and received the Louisiana State University Civil War Center's Award of Excellence. His book A Revolution in Arms: A History of the First Repeating Rifles, was published by Westholme Publishing in November 2005. Westholme also published his Small Arms at Gettysburg in December 2007. His Sea Girt: A Brief History, was published by The History Press in July 2008, and his Asbury Park: A Brief History, co-authored with Harry Ziegler, was published by The History Press in May 2009. In 2010 he edited New Jersey Goes To War, a book on 150 of the state’s personalities of the Civil War era, for the Sesquicentennial Committee. His history of the Battle of Monmouth, Monmouth Courthouse: The Battle that Made the American Army, co-authored with daughter Katherine Bilby, was published by Westholme in June 2010 and was a Military Book Club selection. Freedom to All, his book on the Civil War and other military experiences of New Jersey’s African-American soldiers, was published by Longstreet House in 2011, as was New Jersey’s Civil War Odyssey, which he edited for the Sesquicentennial Committee.

Mr. Bilby co-authored, with James M. Madden and Harry Ziegler, Hidden History of New Jersey, New Jersey history stories from 1755 to 1951, published in November 2011 by the History Press. He is also co-author, along with Mr. Ziegler, of Asbury Park Reborn, published in 2012, a History Press guide to the city’s historic sites, and worked with the firearms curator of the Dutch National Military Museum on the English translation of a book on the museum’s collection of historic arms. He has co-authored, with Mr. Madden and Mr. Ziegler, 350 Years of New Jersey History: From Stuyvesant to Sandy, published in December 2013, for the History Press. Hidden History of New Jersey at War, also co-authored with Mr. Madden and Mr. Ziegler, was published History Press in May 2014, and their latest work, On This Day in New Jersey History, was published in February 2015. New Jersey at the Battle of Monocacy, co-authored by Mr. Bilby with Dr. David Martin, was published in July 2014. Submarine War at the Jersey Shore, co-authored with Harry Ziegler, was published by History Press in August 2016 and his New Jersey: A Military History, was published by Westholme in August 2017. His New Jersey Noir: Bizarre Tales from the Garden State, 1920 to 1952, was published by American History Press in November 2017. Remember You Are Jerseymen: A Military History of New Jersey’s Troops in the Civil War and New Jersey Goes To War are both listed on the New Jersey Historical Commission’s list of “101 Great New Jersey Books.” His latest book, The Rise and Fall of the KKK in New Jersey, co-authored with Mr. Ziegle was published by the History Press in 2019.

Mr. Bilby also contributed entries on historical and outdoor subjects to the Encyclopedia of New Jersey (Rutgers University Press, 2004). A second, expanded, edition of his history of the 15th New Jersey Infantry was published in July 2001. He was appointed a Guest Curator for the New Jersey State Museum’s New Jersey Civil War flags exhibit, which was opened to the public on October 26, 2000, a consultant to the Middlesex County Heritage Commission’s 2004 Civil War exhibit, a member of the Board of Review for the Princeton Historical Society’s 2007 Civil War exhibit an assistant curator for the Middlesex County Heritage Commission’s 2017 World War I exhibit and has also reviewed and edited manuscripts for Rutgers and the State University of New York presses.

Mr. Bilby was the 2011 recipient of the Jane G. Clayton Award, annually presented by the Monmouth County Clerk to honor an individual who, over a substantial number of years, has made exceptional contributions to an awareness, understanding, and/or preservation of the history of Monmouth County, New Jersey. New Jersey Goes to War, which he edited, was named the “Best New Jersey Reference Book” for 2010 by the New Jersey Studies Academic Alliance, and he is also the recipient of a 2011 New Jersey Historical Commission Award of Merit for his work on the state’s military history. He is an ex-officio member of the board of the Advocates for New Jersey History. In 2013 he was awarded the New Jersey Civilian Meritorious Service Medal by the state’s Division of Military and Veterans Affairs for his work in dealing with the aftereffects of Hurricane Sandy, which devastated the museum at Sea Girt. In November 2018 he was awarded the Richard J. Hughes Prize by the New Jersey Historical Commission for his lifelong contributions to the study of New Jersey history.

Mr. Bilby is a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the Outdoor Writers Association of America, the Society of the First Infantry Division and the Company of Military Historians. He was widowed in 2015, has three grown children and three grandchildren and lives at the New Jersey shore.